The subject of the present invention is a device for adjusting the relative position between a first part and a second part of a binding for securing a boot to a gliding board, particularly a ski, in which device the first part has a portion in the form of a strip the parallel sides of which are provided with uniform sets of teeth collaborating with sets of teeth of mating shape formed in the sides of a rectangular cutout of the second part to secure the two parts longitudinally in a selected relative position.
Such a device is used, for example, in the rear binding element for securing a ski boot or heel-piece described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,532, the content of which is incorporated by reference. The body of the heel-piece is mounted so that it can slide on a slide and a lock articulated to the body of the heel-piece allows the heel-piece to be immobilized on the slide. For this purpose, the lock has a part in the form of a strip equipped with two lateral sets of teeth which are symmetric relative to the axis of the strip, these sets of teeth engaging simultaneously in the sets of teeth formed in a cutout of the slide. To adjust the setting, the lock is raised by means of a lever to allow the heel-piece to be moved, then the heel-piece is locked in another position.
In such a device, the fineness of the adjustment depends obviously on the fineness of the set of teeth. Because of the thrust of the boot against the heel-piece, the teeth are subjected to a significant force and it is therefore difficult to reduce the size of the teeth without excessively weakening them. Furthermore, because of the clearances needed for inexpensive manufacture, the set of teeth can also not be to fine.
The object of the invention is to refine the adjustment without there being a need to reduce the size of the teeth.
The device according to the invention is one wherein the teeth of the sets of teeth are the shape of truncated triangles, wherein the overall width of the portion in the form of a toothed strip of the first part is equal to the distance separating the sets of teeth of the second part increased by the height of one tooth and wherein at least the teeth of the sets of teeth of one of the parts are longitudinally offset by a value such that when, on the one hand, the corresponding sets of teeth are engaged in one another, the opposed sets of teeth come into contact via the truncated ends of their teeth.
The equality mentioned hereinabove has of course to be understood as being approximate, given the clearances needed for easy engagement and disengagement and for manufacture that allows relatively broad tolerances.
For the purposes of simplifying manufacture, the opposed sets of teeth of one of the parts are preferably symmetric relative to the axis of this part, while the other sets of teeth are offset with respect to one another by the value of half a tooth. This condition is not, however, essential.
It is thus possible for one of the parts to be moved with respect to the other by the value of half a tooth. In such a movement, the two parts will move transversely one with respect to the other by the height of one tooth, because it is the other two sets of teeth which come into mesh, while the teeth of the sets of teeth previously in mesh will become positioned one facing the other, truncated face against truncated face. In order to allow this transverse or approximately transverse movement, one of the parts may have a transverse clearance corresponding to the height of a tooth or may be mounted so as to pivot about a vertical axis via an end distant from the toothed part.
The device according to the invention will mainly find an application in a heel-piece of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,532 or U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,619, the content of which is incorporated by reference, but it is possible to use it in other arrangements, for example in a ski binding with symmetric adjustment such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,261,688, the content of which is incorporated by reference and U.S. Pat. No. 6,092,829, the content of which is incorporated by reference.
According to an embodiment applied to a ski binding heel-piece comprising a body mounted on a slide, the first part is a strip articulated to said body and the second part is the slide itself.